I was struck by the comments that Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter made to black Philadelphia youths after a flashmob they staged wrought havoc along South Street on March 20, 2010. Admonishing them for their conduct, Nutter announced, “You’ve damaged yourself, you’ve damaged your peers and, quite honestly, you’ve damaged your own race. You’ve damaged your own race” (Hunter 214). His suggestion that they hurt, or brought shame upon, both themselves and their peers is sensible, as their disruptive behavior could lead blacks and non-blacks alike to label African-American teenagers as uncivilized, incapable of expressing political discontent in a more constructive way. However, his point that their destructive actions hurt the reputation of all black people has more profound implications, suggesting that society will generalize the actions of a handful of blacks to be representative of the entire race’s behavior.

This imperative of representing one’s race well reminds me of a conversation I had yesterday afternoon with an African American Harvard administrator. Chatting with me before a meeting, he told me that some white students may use my actions and those of other blacks at Harvard to make generalizations about black people everywhere. He added that such gross generalizations impose an unfair burden upon black students, as we must consistently monitor our own behavior. His statement upset me at first, as I thought he was suggesting that I had no latitude to make mistakes inside or outside the classroom, subject to perpetual evaluation by some of my white peers. However, reflecting on his words further over the past day, I’ve realized that he was merely acknowledging one manifestation of racism in this scholarly community that we may regard as too “liberal” or “progressive” to be susceptible to racial bias.